The other obvious reason why the George questions won’t stop is because players can change their minds. No matter what he says today, if he addresses the subject again tomorrow, it’ll be discussed. We also need to keep in mind that periodic updates on his mindset will be forthcoming, because athletes change their minds. LaMarcus Aldridge said that he would re-sign with the Trail Blazers, and we all know how that ended.

There is an inevitability to the Thunder’s rocky season so far, which is that it hasn’t been nearly dominating enough to think that Thunder forward Paul George would stay beyond this season…

The Thunder have been hovering at or around .500 for a while and seem close to putting things together. However, if the Thunder doesn’t get a sustained push that gets them out of the middle of the Western Conference, its hard to believe a real offer on George would get dismissed, mainly because of the inevitability that George likely walks in July.

Kyler has credible sources, and what he says is more or less consistent with another veteran, Ken Berger of Bleacher Report.

Per Berger, George is fully invested with the team and is focused on this season. He did acknowledge that he enjoys Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony, and did say that he could see himself remaining in OKC for years to come.

“We all enjoy playing with one another,” George told B/R. “This could possibly be me being here for multiple years. But … I’m not going to just throw it in and be like, ‘No, I’m done with this.’ We’ve got a long, long, long season ahead of us. And I’m committed to that.”

For what it’s worth, Berger cites his own league sources as saying that the Thunder “has shown no inclination to entertain trade discussions” on George.

Still, George, although he acknowledges that he could end up in OKC for “multiple years,” kinda suggested earlier in the interview that his doing so was incumbent on the Thunder becoming not only a “good” team, but a dominant team.

“With the talent we have, we don’t want to just be getting by,” George said, in the midst of an eventful, emotional and potentially pivotal road trip for the franchise. “We want to start building towards being a dominant team.”

Later in the interview, he also said that he’s committed to this year, but certainly wants to keep an open mind about where the future takes him.

“Well, I think this is a different scenario because it’s our only year together as far as we’re on one-year contracts,” George told Bleacher Report. “I want to put everything into this and see where that takes us. I’m not giving up; I’m not giving in. I want to give this thing everything I have and we’ll see where it goes.”

Well, we certainly will see where it goes.

The Thunder enter play on December 20 at 15-15, and we’re pretty sure that a .500 record doesn’t qualify as “dominant,” so, of course, we’ll have to continue to watch the Thunder… And, of course, read the Paul George tea leaves.

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